Our main reason for growing our garden is to benefit from the fresh, organic produce it produces. We love cooking and love eating so it’s a perfect pairing. As the produce ripens we use most of it to feed our family, and preserve any extras. You can follow along on our preservation journey here.

It’s so beautiful harvesting and seeing the rainbow of colors that the garden produces.

For many of the items, we haven’t documented recipes as they have been more experimental and ah-hoc. As an example, one day we will harvest some broccoli and decide to add it to an already planned meal. For the most part, the cooking has been very simple, to let the fresh flavors of the produce shine.

Here is a list of some of our good eats made with our produce from our summer harvest so far:

• Green Juice (Dinosaur Kale, Radish Greens, Carrot Tops, Cucumber, Parsley, Lemon, Celery)
• Broccoli and Cauliflower Stir-fry
• Cabbage, Broccoli, Carrot, Cauliflower, Green Onion Stir-fry
• Pickled Cucumbers, Carrots, Jalapenos (white vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, garlic)
• Cabbage Sauerkraut (cabbage and salt)
• Fried Green Tomatoes (dredged in flour, egg, bread crumbs, then fried)
• Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms (stuffed with cream cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, Parsley, Garlic Salt dipped in batter of flour and soda water then fried)
• Roasted Shishito Peppers (olive oil, salt and pepper)
• Cucumber Salad (3 ways – mixed with Tzatziki, or mixed with white balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or mixed with rice vinegar, sesame oil, Sriracha)
• Cabbage Coleslaw (mayo, Sour cream, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper)
• Roasted Beets and Beet Greens Salad (with feta cheese and pistachios)
• Basil Pesto (olive oil, almonds, parmesan, garlic)
• Hot Pepper Jelly (apple cider vinegar, sugar, honey, pectin)
• Ratatouille (eggplant, yellow and green squash, tomatoes, onion, garlic)

As the summer progresses, we get different produce coming in waves. This has allowed us to keep a fairly steady flow of vegetables to use and cook with, and providing some extras to preserve. We’ve been experimenting with different types of preserving as well.

As we get more comfortable with canning and preserving, we’ll document that in more detail soon.